Salem resident wins poetry prize

YOUR STORY: Salem Lutheran Rest Home resident and novice poet Gladys Kirkwood, 78, is "over the moon'' with her first prize placing in last week's Toowoomba Royal Show poetry competition.

Mrs Kirkwood's winning entry in the Inter Nursing Home Challenge was a poem titled Australia Day that took her about an hour to write.

The great grandmother, who has been a resident at Salem in Toowoomba for six years, said she began writing poetry "by accident'' three years ago and hasn't been able to stop.

"A staff member said in passing one day about three years ago: 'wouldn't it be good if someone wrote a poem about the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers' and as I was lying in bed that night my first poem just came to me,'' Mrs Kirkwood said.

"I got up the next morning, sat at my computer and wrote it.

"Ever since then poems have kept coming, which surprised me a bit because before that I couldn't rhyme rat with hat!''

She said penning poetry kept her mind active and the pieces always began in her heart.

"The poems are just something in my heart that I have to get out,'' she said.

Her first prize in the Toowoomba Royal Show competition was unexpected and a "great thrill'', she said.

"My husband John still lives at our home and when I told him that I had won first place he almost jumped through the phone with excitement for me,'' she said.

Mrs Kirkwood has lived in Toowoomba for 54 years.

Here is Mrs Kirkwood's' winning poem:

Australia Day

Let's celebrate Australia Day - here is the time and date,

The 26th of January, 1788.

Now what can I write about this day, let's take a little look,

We celebrate this day each year, it is in our history books.

Captain Arthur Phillip is the man who we should really thank,

He laid the first flag at Sydney Cove, right there on the bank.

Let us celebrate Australia Day, let's shout HIP HIP HOORAY,

'Cos this day is one of many, a public holiday.

The emu and the kangaroo are on our Coat of Arms,

They cannot move backwards, neither will this land.

There are many, many Australians, and lots of others too,

Who deserve the awards they're given, for the things they freely do.

There are scientists, sports and doctors, literature and songs,

These are topics that they thrive in doing, the rest of us just tag along.